Just like the spiritual master awakens the dormant love in the hearts of the devotees, similarly, He awakens the love for Krishna in their living by installing life into deities.

Another such life changing event occurred on the 26th January’18 where Sri Sri Nitai- Nadia Vihari were welcomed into hearts and lives of many, by the mercy of Srila Gurudev

Yadukula under the guidance of HH Kratu Das ji Maharaj got the oportunity to perform the all auspicious continuous 9 hour Harinaam Kirtan for the welcome and the pleasure of the Lord’s. The preparations started weeks ago where all volunteers enthusiastically came together to welcome their lordships in the most magnificient and spectacular way. All devotees got to witness the most beautiful abhishek of Sri Sri Nitai Nadia Vihari, along with the blissful chanting and hyms of “Govindam adi purusam”. Devotees were served with sumptuous prasadam for the whole day, as the kirtan hall kept receiving more and more participants for inviting Sri Harinaam Prabhu with their melodious and soulful kirtanas

The day ended with lots and lots of dancing, where Srila Gurudev himself brought all devotees together to dance for the pleasure of the lord.

Only with the mercy of Srila Vyasa Dev are we able to get an access to the most treasured scriptures. These scriptures are not only precious but a backbone of all our knowledge philosophy.
However, it is only when Srila Prabhupada and Our Spiritual Masters become merciful upon us and guide us to bring these scriptures into our life, that we are able to lead a blissful life according to the instructions of the Supreme Lord himself.
To Thank Our Spiritual Master, HH Kratu Maharaj who has imparted the injunctions of thes scriptures to us, we celebrate His Vyas Puja Mahotsav every year with great pleasure and delight.
This year it was celebrated in the lotus feet of Srimati Radharani in Sri Vrindavan dham.
The two day festivity comprised of endless glorification of Srila Gurudev by His divine Godbrothers and many of His disciples and followers. Many hearts melted to realise their good fortune they have after hearing these glorifications.
A grand cultural performance was put up by Maharaj’s young disciples and followers, members of IYF C2C which consisted of His favorite pastimes in the form of dance and drama.
The Charan Abhishek and guru arati made many eyes teary and brought an end to this auspicious event.
All glories to Srila Gurudev !

Every human being is obliged and has an obligation? We are under whose obligation? Demigods – Sun God, He gives us heat and light; moon nourishes our eatables and like that Indra, Chandra, Surya, Brihaspati, they all are demigods and are supplying. They are supplying and they don’t send bill for what they are supplying so we are indebted to them.

We are obliged to cow and ox. Ox is tilting the ground and cow is giving us milk, butter, butter milk, ghee, etc. Mother Cow is nurturing us so we are under obligation to cow and ox.

We are indebted to our forefathers also. Why? because they not only brought us to this human form of life which is very rare and valuable but also nourished us, nurtured us. They provided us food, clothing and education so we are indebted to them.

Those who are cent percent surrendered and are serving Krishna, they are not under any obligation of “devarṣi-bhūtāpta-nṛṇāṁ pitṝṇāṁ na kiṅkaro nāyam ṛṇī ca rājan”. Why? Because they are surrendered and are serving Krishna. “Sarvātmanā”, the king is dependent on Krishna, demigods are dependent on Krishna and everybody else. Just by supplying food to the stomach, we automatically nourish our hands, nose, ear, whole body so simultaneously, serving Krishna, “sarvātmanā yaḥ śaraṇaṁ śaraṇyaṁ”, by surrendering to Krishna we pay up our debt.

Why perform Shradh Ceremony?

So that we can relieve our ancestors from the hellish conditions, suffering condition.

If we are not cent percent surrendered to Krishna then we must perform Shradh. Lord Ramchandra did, he performed for Dashrath Maharaj, pinda daan. There was no question of Dashrath Maharaj going to hellish conditions because Lord Ramchandra was his direct son. It is the greatest fortune to have Krishna as your son, God as your son, Dashrath Maharaj will never suffer from hellish conditions, go to hell, even then Lord Ramchandra performed shradh. Lord Chaitanya is God himself, he also went to Gaya to perform Shradh Ceremony for his departed father, Jagannath Misra. So if we are not cent percent surrendered then we must perform Shradh Ceremony to pay up our debt to our forefathers, to relieve them from their hellish conditions.

How to perform Shradh?

It is stated in Srimad Bhagvatam that one must call pure brahman and perform the ceremony. One must cook sumptuous, beautiful, tasty, rich prasadam and that one has to offer to Lord Vishnu. This is written in Srimad Bhagvatam that first one must offer it Krishna, Vishnu, Ram, Narayan, Laxman and then one must offer to the Brahmans. When Advaita Acharya performed Shradh Ceremony of his father, first, he offered to a vaishnava, not even brahmans and Srila Haridasa Thakur was the most exalted vaishnava present there; He was a Muslim, he was not within varnashrama even, not even a brahman but a pure vaishnava. After offering to the Lord, one must offer to the vaishnavas, then one must offer to brahmans and then to one’s relatives, after that one is supposed to offer to people in general, beggars and after everything is over, one is supposed to honour that prasadam and give dakshina to brahmans, vaishnavas, the best donation is to vaishnavas. One should do it with faith and that will relieve one’s ancestors from the pangs of maya, suffering.

Preparing for initiation means taking spiritual life seriously and when one is convinced that this material world has nothing to offer, it is just for the body. Material world is going to offer everything for the body but not for the soul.

Then what about the soul ? That is preparing for initiation- “I want to do something for myself. What is that something that I want to do for myself ? That I want to advance in my spiritual life.”

Srila Prabhupada says that if we want to learn carpentry, how do we learn? By working under a good carpenter. How can we become a doctor? By working under a doctor and reading the medical books available. Similarly, if we want to do something for ourselves, if we want to become spiritually advanced, then we need a Spiritual Master who can teach us how to advance in our spiritual life.

What are our shortcomings? How can we go in the right direction ? A Spiritual Master can put us on track again and having a Spiritual Master means having a well wisher, our guardian, who serves his disciples. A Guru, helps us, holds our hand and brings us to Krishna. So preparing for initiation means taking help from the Spiritual Master to advance in the spiritual life.

Srila Rupa Goswami in Sadhna Bhakti, says that

“Aadau Guru Padashraya”

Aadau means right in the beginning, we have to find a proper Guru and take shelter of him.

Preparing for initiation means that we have to fix the teacher then we can advance. The following things we to follow, 4 regulative principles, 16 rounds and studying the recommended Vedic Literature, few books and prepare ourselves.

We have to accept “Vartamana Pad-Pradakshika Guru”, Siksha Guru, Diksha Guru, Chautha Guru, Guru means many Gurus so it is not that Diksha Guru is all in all, there are many other ways Guru comes to us and topmost Guru is Krsna, Chaitya Guru.

“Krsnam Vande Jagat Guru”. Krishna is the topmost Guru. So this is preparing for initiation.

Our real mother is of course Krishna and we must thank Him today.
“aham sarvasya prabhavo
mattah sarvam pravartate
iti matva bhajante mam
budha bhava-samanvitah” [Bg. 10.8]
Everything is produced from Krishna, Krishna is the source of everything and that is why He is the original mother. The Supreme Personality Of Godhead, even though everything emanates from Him, He also desires that He should also have a mother, so that He can enjoy the motherly love and affection.
Though Krishna is the original mother but He also likes to have a mother and that is why He has the original mother, Mother Yashoda. Both in the spiritual and the material world, He accepted Mother Yashoda and Mother Devaki as a mother, not only one mother because Krishna is very greedy for motherly love and affection.

In the Tenth Canto, Bhagavatam, Lord Krishna says that in this material world if we look for pure love, close to pure love (pure love cannot be found in the material world) then it can be found in a mother. That is the closest pure love, which we can find in the material world. A mother is so caring, protective and she serves the child so well, that makes a strong bond between the mother and the child. Just like if we come between a mother and the cubs, we are finished because the mother loves her offspring so much , this is the real bond or loving reciprocation between a child and the mother. A mother might be 10,000 miles away but a mother would be knowing what her child is going through.

Padavas, they were so grown up but when Mother Kunti would see them after a long time, immediately she would emanate parental love and affection. Same thing can be seen in Krishna’s past times, Krishna was so grown up and when He would see Mother Yashoda or Mother Yashoda would see Him, immediately parental love would be emanated. So this is a very affectionate, loving and intimate relationship between a child and the mother.
This is unparallel in the material world, we cannot compare the mother’s love towards the offspring to anything in the material world. Since she loves us so much, it is not enough to thank her only one day , we should thank her everyday and every moment.